Responding to Amy's post. 1. Yes, EA's need to be proportionate to likely costs of an evalaution. I agree 100%. Some historical research on past ratios should now be possible to give us ball-park ideas on the range and median values 2. Yes, a checklist re the need for an EA , is at least worth thinking about. One pointer in this direction is in the comment that "some UN agencies that have developed an approach of making EAs mandatory for programs with large budgets over a specified amount" Here I think budget size may in effect be being used as a proxy for programme complexity. But it is not a straight forward correlation. A large simple programme may not need an EA i.e one with a few simple clear objectives and interventions. Would an immuniation programme fit this description? But as general rule I think large budget programmes do tend to be more complex in terms of objectives, interventions, partners and stakeholders and geographic locations. Consider these as nodes in a network, the more of these there are the more numerous are the possible and actual causal linkages, and types and sources of information about what is happening. if a checklist of EA need is to be developed perhaps these sources of complexity could be items to considered?
RE: Evaluability Assessments: An invitation to reflect and discuss
United Kingdom
Rick Davies
Evaluation Consultant
Posted on 04/09/2024
Responding to Amy's post.
1. Yes, EA's need to be proportionate to likely costs of an evalaution. I agree 100%. Some historical research on past ratios should now be possible to give us ball-park ideas on the range and median values
2. Yes, a checklist re the need for an EA , is at least worth thinking about. One pointer in this direction is in the comment that "some UN agencies that have developed an approach of making EAs mandatory for programs with large budgets over a specified amount" Here I think budget size may in effect be being used as a proxy for programme complexity. But it is not a straight forward correlation. A large simple programme may not need an EA i.e one with a few simple clear objectives and interventions. Would an immuniation programme fit this description? But as general rule I think large budget programmes do tend to be more complex in terms of objectives, interventions, partners and stakeholders and geographic locations. Consider these as nodes in a network, the more of these there are the more numerous are the possible and actual causal linkages, and types and sources of information about what is happening. if a checklist of EA need is to be developed perhaps these sources of complexity could be items to considered?